NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Aneurin Bevan

Aneurin Bevan, usually known as Nye Bevan (November 15, 1897 – July 6, 1960) was a Welsh Labour politician and a socialist. He was a key figure on the left of the party in the mid-twentieth century and was the Secretary of State responsible for the formation of the National Health Service. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1168x1760, 671 KB) Summary A statue of Aneurin Bevan in Cardiff. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1168x1760, 671 KB) Summary A statue of Aneurin Bevan in Cardiff. ... Cardiff (English: Welsh: ) is the capital of Wales and its largest city. ... November 15 is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 46 days remaining. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Motto: (Welsh for Wales forever) Anthem: (Welsh for Land of My Fathers) Capital Cardiff (Caerdydd) Largest city Cardiff (Caerdydd) Official language(s) Welsh, English Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP - First Minister Rhodri Morgan AM Unification - by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn 1056... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in the United Kingdom. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Minister of Health redirects here. ... The logo of the NHS for England. ...

Youth

Bevan was born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, the son of miner David Bevan. Both Bevan's parents were Nonconformists: his father was a Baptist and his mother a Methodist. One of ten children, Bevan did poorly at school and his academic performance was so bad that his headmaster made him repeat a year. At the age of thirteen Aneurin left school and began working in the local Tytryst Colliery. David Bevan had been a supporter of the Liberal Party in his youth, but was converted to socialism by the writings of Robert Blatchford in the Clarion and joined the Independent Labour Party. Tredegar is a town in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, traditional county of Monmouthshire, lying on the Sirhowy River in southern Wales, United Kingdom. ... Monmouthshire (Welsh: Sir Fynwy) is both a principal area and a traditional county in south-east Wales. ... This article is about mineral extraction. ... A nonconformist is an English or Welsh Protestant of any non-Anglican denomination, chiefly advocating religious liberty. ... A Baptist is a member of a Baptist church or any follower of Jesus Christ who believes that baptism is administered by the full immersion of a confessing Christian. ... The Methodist movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity. ... Wyoming coal mine Coal mining is the mining of coal. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ...

His son also joined the Tredegar branch of the South Wales Miners' Federation and became a trade union activist: he was head of his local Miners' Lodge at only nineteen. Bevan became a well-known local orator and was seen by his employers, the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, as a revolutionary. The manager of the colliery found an excuse to get him sacked. However, with the support of the Miners' Federation, the case was judged as one of victimisation and the company was forced to re-employ him. The South Wales Miners Federation (SWMF), nicknamed The Fed, was a trade union for miners in South Wales. ... A Trade Union (Labour union) ... is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment. ...

In 1919 he won a scholarship to the Central Labour College in London, sponsored by the South Wales Miners' Federation. At the college he gained his life-long respect for Karl Marx. Reciting long passages by William Morris, Bevan gradually began to overcome the stammer that he had since he was a child. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... William Morris, socialist and innovator in the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris, publisher Davids Charge to Solomon (1882), a stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris in Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts. ...

Upon returning home in 1921 he found that the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company refused to re-hire him. He did not find work until 1924 in the Bedwellty Colliery, and it closed down after ten months. Bevan had to endure another year of unemployment and in February 1925, his beloved father died of pneumoconiosis. Bedwellty was a parish and urban district in Monmouthshire, South Wales, until 1974. ... Pneumoconiosis, also known as miners lung, is a lung condition caused by the inhalation of dust, characterized by formation of nodular fibrotic changes in lungs. ...

In 1926 he found work again, this time as a paid union official. His wage of £5 a week was paid by the members of the local Miners' Lodge. His new job arrived in time for him to head the local miners against the colliery companies in what would become the General Strike. When the General Strike started on May 3, 1926, Bevan soon emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners. The miners remained on strike for six months. Bevan was largely responsible for the distribution of strike pay in Tredegar and the formation of the Council of Action, an organisation that helped to raise money and provided food for the miners. The UK General Strike of 1926 lasted nine days, from 3 May to 12 May 1926, and was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal miners. ... The UK General Strike of 1926 lasted nine days, from 3 May to 12 May 1926, and was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal miners. ... May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Parliament

In 1928 he won a seat on Monmouthshire County Council. With that success he was picked as the Labour Party candidate for Ebbw Vale (displacing the sitting MP), and easily held the seat at the 1929 General Election. In Parliament he soon became noticed as a harsh critic of those he felt opposed the working man. His targets included the Conservative Winston Churchill and the Liberal Lloyd George, as well as Ramsay MacDonald and Margaret Bondfield from his own Labour party (he targeted the latter for her unwillingness to increase unemployment benefits). He had solid support from his constituency, being one of the few Labour MPs to be unopposed in the 1931 General Election. Blaenau Gwent is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The 1929 UK general election was held on 30th May 1929, and resulted in a hung parliament. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 â€“ 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, soldier, and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM (January 17, 1863–March 26, 1945) was a British statesman and the last Liberal to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866â€“9 November 1937) was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... Margaret Grace Bondfield (17th March, 1873-16th June, 1953), an English politician and feminist was born in Chard, Somerset, the eleventh child of Anne Taylor and William Bondfield, a textiles worker with left-wing views. ... The UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. ...

Bevan supported the fascist Oswald Mosley's New Party in 1931 because he thought Mosley offered good policies to tackle unemployment.^[1] Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 â€“ December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... The New Party were a political party briefly active in the United Kingdom in the early 1930s. ...

He married fellow socialist MP Jennie Lee in 1934. He was an early supporter of the socialists in Spain and visited the country in the 1930s. In 1936 he joined the board of the new socialist newspaper the Tribune. His agitations for a united socialist front of all parties of the left (including the Communist Party of Great Britain) led to his brief expulsion from the Labour Party in March to November 1939 (along with Cripps and Trevelyan). However, he was readmitted in November 1939 after agreeing "to refrain from conducting or taking part in campaigns in opposition to the declared policy of the Party." Jennie Lee (November 3, 1904 - 1988) was born Janet Lee in Lochgelly, in Fife, Scotland. ... Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, currently a magazine though in the past more often a newspaper, published in London. ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... The Right Honourable Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (April 24, 1889 - April 21, 1952), British Labour politician, was born in London, the son of a Conservative member of the House of Commons who late in life, as Lord Parmoor, joined the Labour Party. ...

He was a strong critic of the policies of Neville Chamberlain, arguing that his old enemy Winston Churchill should be given power. During the war he was one of the leaders of the left in the Commons, opposing the wartime Coalition government. Bevan opposed the heavy censorship imposed on radio and newspapers and wartime Defence Regulation 18B, which gave the Home Secretary the powers to intern citizens without trial. Bevan called for the nationalisation of the coal industry and advocated the opening of a Second Front in Western Europe in order to help the Soviet Union in its fight with Germany. Churchill responded by calling Bevan the "Minister of Disease". Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 â€“ 9 November 1940) was a Conservative British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. ... Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 â€“ 24 January 1965) was an English statesman, soldier, and author, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... Censorship is the removal of information from the public, or the prevention of circulation of information, where it is desired or felt best by some controlling group or body, that others are not allowed to access the information which is being censored. ... Defence Regulation 18B was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. It allowed for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

Bevan believed that the Second World War would give Britain the opportunity to create "a new society". He often quoted an 1885 passage from Karl Marx: "The redeeming feature of war is that it puts a nation to the test. As exposure to the atmosphere reduces all mummies to instant dissolution, so war passes supreme judgment upon social systems that have outlived their vitality." At the beginning of the 1945 general election campaign Bevan told his audience: "We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders. We enter this campaign at this general election, not merely to get rid of the Tory majority. We want the complete political extinction of the Tory Party." Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom France Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian... Clement Attlee Winston Churchill The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 held on 5 July 1945 but not counted and declared until 26 July 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th...

Government

The 1945 General Election proved to be a landslide victory for the Labour Party, giving it a large enough majority to allow the implementation of their manifesto commitments and to introduce a programme of far reaching social reforms that were collectively dubbed the 'Welfare State' (see 1945 Labour Election Manifesto). The new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, appointed Aneurin Bevan as Minister of Health, with a remit that also covered Housing. Thus, the responsibility for instituting a new and comprehensive National Health Service, paid for by a severe increase in marginal tax rates and with no fees paid at the point of delivery, as well as tackling the country's severe post-war housing shortage, fell to the youngest member of Attlee's Cabinet in his first ministerial position. Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 â€“ 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ...

On the "appointed day", July 5, 1948, having overcome political opposition from both the Conservative Party and from within his own party, and after a dramatic show down with the British Medical Association, which had threatened to derail the National Health Service scheme before had even begun, as medical practitioners continued to withhold their support just months before the launch of the service, Bevan's National Health Service Act of 1946 came into force. After eighteen months of ongoing dispute between the Ministry of Health and the BMA, Bevan finally managed to successfully win over the support of the vast majority of the medical profession by offering a couple of minor concessions, but without compromising on the fundamental principles of his NHS proposals. Bevan later gave the famous quote that in order to broker the deal he "stuffed their mouths with gold". Some 2,688 voluntary and municipal hospitals in England and Wales were nationalised and came under Bevan's supervisory control as Health Minister. July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The logo of the association. ... Many governments, both national and more local, have a Department of Health. This article is about the British one. ... BMA may stand for: Bandera-Medina-Atascosa Water District Battery-Minefield angle Berlekamp-Massey algorithm Bermuda Monetary Authority Block matching algorithm British Medical Association British Military Administration Stockholm-Bromma Airport This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification - by Athelstan AD 927 Area - Total 130,395 kmÂ² (1st in UK) 50,346 sq mi Population - 2006 est. ... Motto: (Welsh for Wales forever) Anthem: (Welsh for Land of My Fathers) Capital Cardiff (Caerdydd) Largest city Cardiff (Caerdydd) Official language(s) Welsh, English Government Constitutional monarchy - Queen Queen Elizabeth II - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP - First Minister Rhodri Morgan AM Unification - by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn 1056...

Substantial bombing damage and the continued existence of pre-war slums in many parts of the country made the task of housing reform particularly challenging for Bevan. Indeed, these factors, exacerbated by post-war restrictions on the availability of building materials and skilled labour, collectively served to limit Bevan's achievements in this area. 1946 saw the completion of 55,600 new homes; this rose to 139,600 in 1947, and 227,600 in 1948. While this was not an insignificant achievement, Bevan's record compares poorly with his Conservative (indirect) successor, Harold Macmillan, who was able to complete some 300,000 a year as Minister for Housing in the 1950s.

Bevan was demoted to Minister of Labour in 1951 but soon resigned in protest at Hugh Gaitskell's introduction of prescription charges for dental care and spectacles -- created in order to meet the financial demands imposed on the budget by the Korean War. Two other Ministers, John Freeman and Harold Wilson resigned at the same time. See Bevan's speeches Minister of Labour re-directs here. ... Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (April 9, 1906 â€“ January 18, 1963) was a British politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1955 until his death in 1963. ... Combatants United Nations: Republic of Korea Australia Belgium Canada Colombia Ethiopia France Greece Netherlands New Zealand Philippines South Africa Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Medical staff: Denmark India Italy Norway Sweden Communist states: Democratic Peopleâ€™s Republic of Korea Peopleâ€™s Republic of China Soviet Union Commanders Syngman Rhee... The Right Honorable Major John Freeman, MBE was born on 19 February 1915. ... James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 â€“ 24 May 1995) was one of the most prominent British politicians of the 20th century. ...

Backbenches

Out of the Cabinet, Bevan soon initiated a split within the Labour Party between the right and the left. For the next five years Bevan was the leader of the left-wing of the Labour Party, who became known as Bevanites. They criticised high defence expenditure (especially over nuclear weapons) and opposed the reformist policies of Clement Attlee. When the first British Hydrogen bomb was exploded in 1955, Bevan led a revolt of 57 Labour MPs and abstained on a key vote. The Parliamentary Labour Party voted 141 to 113 to withdraw the whip from him, although such was his popularity that it had to be restored within a month. Bevanism was the ideological argument for the Bevanites, a movement on the centre left of the Labour Party in the late 1950s and led by Nye Bevan. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 â€“ 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ...

After the 1955 general election, Attlee retired as leader. Bevan contested the leadership against both Morrison and Labour right-winger Hugh Gaitskell but it was Gaitskell who emerged victorious. Bevan's remark that "I know the right kind of political Leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine" was assumed to refer to Gaitskell, although Bevan denied it (commenting upon Gaitskell's record as Chancellor of the Exchequer as having "proved" this). However, Gaitskell was prepared to make Bevan Shadow Colonial Secretary, and then Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1956. Bevan dismayed many of his supporters when, speaking at the 1957 Labour Party conference, he decried unilateral nuclear disarmament, saying "It would send a British Foreign Secretary naked into the conference-chamber". (This statement is often misconstrued. Bevan argued that unilateralism would result in Britain's loss of allies. In Bevan's metaphor, the nakedness comes from the lack of allies, not the lack of weapons). The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on May 26, 1955, four years after the previous general election. ... Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (April 9, 1906 â€“ January 18, 1963) was a British politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1955 until his death in 1963. ... The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British cabinet minister responsible for all financial matters. ...

In 1959 despite suffering from terminal cancer, Bevan was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. He could do little in his new role and died the next year at the age of 62. It has been suggested that Cancerous tumor be merged into this article or section. ...

His last speech in the House of Commons, in which Bevan referred to the difficulties of persuading the electorate to support a policy which would make them less well-off in the short term but more prosperous in the long term, was much quoted in the years after.

Notes

Publications

Contents

Youth

Parliament

Government

Backbenches

Notes

Publications

See also

External links